Chen Dance Center Presents NEWSTEPS This Weekend

Chen Dance Center presents newsteps, its semi-annual emerging choreographer's series, this weekend, January 14-16 at 7:30 PM at the Chen Dance Center, 70 Mulberry Street. Since 1994, the Chen Dance Center has supported and presented hundreds of dancers and choreographers developing innovative works through their space and production grants.

Five choreographers were selected through an open audition by a panel of dance leaders including H.T. Chen, Walter Rutledge, Rosalind Newman and Lance Westergard: the selected choreographers are Hannah Garner, Gina Montalto, Takeshi Ohashi, Laura Henry, Ayaka Kamei. They receive a stipend, rehearsal space at the Chen Dance Center, and three public performances to show their work.

Takeshi Ohashi plays with the idea that men and women are afraid to be changed by time and how it negatively affects relationships.

Quiet by Gina Montalto is about the feeling of voicelessness on an individual level or in society. Within the piece the dancers are fighting a battle internally and externally about how to speak up or whether to stay silent.

Hannah Garner's duet, loosely based on the work of visual artist Rachel Gordon, explores the idea that our failures, deficiencies we think we have, and the weird things we do everyday as human beings all contribute to who we are as people and how we relate to each other. Because things we see as "bad" force us to grow as much, if not more than things we view positively, these failures and mundane oddities are actually our greatest accomplishments.

Stay With Me is in memory of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan which affected many lives on March 11, 2011 and anyone who has gone through the hardship of losing loved ones. Ayaka Kameiexperienced the shock and aftermath when she offered her services as a volunteer.

Laura Henry was inspired by William Golding's book Lord of the Flies. Her piece, The Scar, explores how fear controls our behavior and the many forms it takes when fed.

Subway: Take the 6, N, R, Q, J, Z to Canal Street, then walk East along Canal towards Chinatown. Turn right on to Mulberry Street and walk one block south to Bayard. The theater is on the northeast corner of Mulberry and Bayard.

Chen Dance Center supports the development of dance by providing a professional theater space in which artists of high caliber receive production support and visibility to the NY audiences and press. The Theater also hosts H.T. Chen & Dancers' annual educational series for school groups, Teahouse Performances for family audiences, serves as a venue for community events, and provides affordable rehearsal space for modern dance artists.

CHEN DANCE CENTER is comprised of three components: a performing arts SCHOOL, a black-box THEATER (formerly MULBERRY ST THEATER) for modern dance, and its resident dance company, H.T. CHEN & DANCERS. CHEN DANCE CENTER is supported by: THE FORD FOUNDATION, LOWER MANHATTAN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS, NEW YORK CITY DEPT. OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS.